stretching my elephant boots

[leatherman1457]

I have a problem i have a pair of luchesse elephant boots that I have had for years. I have gotten a little older and my feet have changed a little. the boots still look new and can not afford the price of a new pair of elephants. Can they be stretched a half size bigger ? Is How. Gary

[pete]

A shoe and bootmakers trick to stretch is to wipe iso alcohol over the boot and stuff tightly with paper. The alcohol stretches the leather without harming it.

I've done this on leather shoes but not on exotic leather.

Call Kevin at Springfield leather. Bo Ridell is the on site bootmaker. He is nationally known and can answer it for you immediately.

\pete

[Luke Hatley]

Leatherman if i were you i would get "Shoe Strech" at your local Shoe Repair

it has Glecrin in with the alcohol that will lubcriate the fibers of the leather

when they are strectch.........

[RageRover]

This post is a month old, but I will give it a try, maybe you haven't found a solution yet?

I don't know about exotic leathers either....but as far as "normal" (i.e. non exotic leathers) I stretch various shoes all the time.

Yes, you can buy shoe stretch...but its mostly alcohol and water! And its about $5 for a tiny 5oz bottle. Not worth it IMHO.

So...you can make your own shoe stretch by mixing about 1-2 parts alcohol to about 2 parts water in a spray bottle. Then mist the leather until its moist...then stretch gently. Best to stretch small amounts at a time over a period of days.

In addition, after the leather has been sprayed down with the water and alcohol I give it a wipe with Lexol.

This has always worked well for me dozens of times.

Once again (this is my legal statement), This method has worked well for ME....I don't want to be blamed if it does not work well for you! So if you can, try it on a small piece of leather first.

Just add, don't flood the leather the with the water/alcohol...just mist until its moistened all the way through. You can always use a towel/rag to wipe away any areas that are flooded/pooling with alcohol solution. Also...as you gently stretch the leather over the day(s), every time you want to pull it or stretch it more, always make sure you wet it/spray it again with the alcohol & water solution.

Once you have the leather where you want it to be, then you just let it dry...which in the case of a shoe, it is recommended to wait at least 24hrs. I always wait 48hrs or more.

last but not least...after its stretched, I wipe it down with Lexol again (Connolly Hide food is good too, but its thick and greasy but filled with lanolin...but I'm sure any leather moisturizer of choice will work well.)

Good luck...hope it works well for you. Please let me know how it goes.

Leatherman if i were you i would get "Shoe Strech" at your local Shoe Repair

it has Glecrin in with the alcohol that will lubcriate the fibers of the leather

when they are strectch.........

Edited February 15, 2010 by RageRover

[Newfman]

funny, last summer i put on my old Luchesse boots and found the same thing. My feet had gotten wider and they were too tight. I used a spray can of boot stretch, and put two pairs of socks on. Stuffed my feet in the boots and walked around the house until they dried. This did two things, 1) stretched my boots until they were slightly less than comfortable. Which sucked because i paid over 300 for them. 2) Tortured me enough to realize you can't get 10 lbs of B.S. in a 5 lb bag. So, i will just buy boots that fit. For the price, they should be really comfy.

I hope your experience is better, but, sometimes, you just gotta' suck it up and get boots that fit.

[pete]

After you wet it down with alcohol-stuff them as tightly as you can with newspaper. Just keep stuffing in small wads at a time.

I have wooden shoe trees that work great. Leave them a few days to dry out and you're done.

pete